STRENGTH: Angelina Jolie opened the global summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict [EPA]

The actress joined Foreign Secretary William Hague for the four-day Global Summit to End Sexual Violence in Conflict, in London.

The event is the biggest of its kind with more than 140 countries taking part.

It aims to take concrete steps in improving the lives of victims, increasing awareness of sexual violence in conflict and to launch an international protocol to help strengthen prosecutions for rape in war zones.

Every year 150 million girls and women are raped in conflict around the world along with 70 million men and boys. The overwhelming majority of them never get justice.

MASS CRIME: Both Jolie and Hague opened the summit in London [EPA]

“It has nothing to do with sex, everything to do with power”

Angelina Jolie

Mr Hague said rape was one of the "great mass crimes of modern times".

He was greeted with cheers when he said it is only a "weak or inadequate man" that abuses women.

Mr Hague cited the estimated 50,000 women who were raped in Bosnia two decades ago, virtually none of whom have received justice.

Jolie, who is a special envoy for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, opened the summit by saying: "We must send a message around the world that there is no disgrace in being a survivor of sexual violence, that the shame is on the aggressor."

She said it is a "myth" that rape is an inevitable part of conflict.

"There is nothing inevitable about it – it is a weapon of war aimed at civilians.

"It has nothing to do with sex, everything to do with power," the Hollywood star said.

LISTENING: The pair took a walk around one of the exhibitions at the Excel [EPA]

The actress told the packed crowd at the opening of the End Sexual Violence in Conflict (ESVC) summit that she has met survivors in countries including Afghanistan and Somalia, and they are "just like us, with one crucial difference".

She said: "We live in safe countries with doctors we can go to when we're hurt, police we can turn to when we're wronged, and institutions that protect us.

"They live in refugee camps, on bombed-out streets, in areas where there is no law, no protection, and not even the hope of justice."

Jolie said the international community needs to work to make "justice the norm".

She said she wanted to dedicate the conference to a rape victim she recently met in Bosnia, who felt so humiliated by what had happened to her that she could not tell her own son if her pain.

"She felt that having had no justice for her particular crime, in her particular situation, and having seen the actual man who raped her on the streets free, she really felt abandoned by the world,'' Ms Jolie said.

"This day is for her."

SURVIVOR: Estella Nelson was abducted from her home when she was just 14 [IG]

Zainab Bangura, the UN Special Represntative on Sexual Voilence in Conflict, said she has seen with "her own eyes" the devastation this type of crime has on both individuals but also entire communities.

She said: "Sexual violence in conflict knows no geographical borders. From Colombia to Bosnia, from Cambodia to Democratic Republic of Congo; it knows no gender or age limits.

"Men and boys have also been victims, and I have met survivors as young as six months and women as old as 70 years."

One of the speakers at the summit will be Poline Akello, who was abducted from her home in Uganda when she was just 14.

Forced by the army of notorious warlord Joseph Kony to become a child soldier, she survived six years in the bush where she was given to one of Kony's commanders.

"I knew it wasn't the right time for me," she said. "My body wasn't mature enough but they took my virginity."

Poline became pregnant but her baby did not survive and she was not allowed to hold or bury her child.

"I wasn't allowed to mourn," she said. "If you cried, they would kill you."

The summit, which is being held at ExCeL London, will run until Thursday and includes dozens of free events which will be open to the public.